It is known in the prior art to use mechanical exercise devices which are resistive to compression for the purposes of body building and the general strengthening and toning of muscles. for certain applications, such as home use or public use outside of gymnasiums or spas, it is especially useful that such exercise devices should be compact and portable.
Because the musculature of the body which is subject to development with exercise devices varies in strength and tone, it is also useful that such a device be of variable resistance in compression. For example, a single exercise device may usefully be compressed between the knees in order to strengthen the inner thigh muscles and may also be compressed between the hands in order to strengthen the chest and arm muscles. It is useful that the resistance of the exercise device to compression might be varied for different exercises being performed by the same person, and might also be varied between uses of the same device by different persons exhibiting different degrees of strength.
Correspondingly, the present invention concerns the realization of selectively variable compression resistance in a compact compression exercise device.